Birmingham began impounding Bird scooters on Monday afternoon, nearly two weeks after the city asked the rideshare company to remove the illegal vehicles.

Dozens of the dockless electric scooters landed in the Southside and Red Mountain communities of Birmingham on Aug. 28. Homewood was also flooded with the scooters the same day. The scooters are located and rented through the Bird app.

"Birmingham welcomes innovation and innovators. But, in order to create the environment for creativity and progress to thrive, businesses need to follow processes that promote fairness," Birmingham spokesperson Rick Journey said in a statement. "In this case, a competing firm has approached city officials with a thoughtful proposal. We cannot let another company operate without approval when a competitor is using the proper channels to enter our market. Innovation and free enterprise rely on an even chance for each competing firm to succeed and allowing Bird to continue in its current form would violate that basic principle."

For placing scooters illegally on Birmingham city sidewalks, Bird could be charged up to $500 a day for each scooter. The city hasn't said how much the impounding and storage of the scooters could cost Bird.

Birmingham police spokesman Sgt. Johnny Williams said 41 scooters have been impounded as of late Monday afternoon.

"We gave the company a period of time to comply with the notification they received from the city of Birmingham's Law Department," he said in an email. "We observed that the scooters were still located at various areas around the city and still in use by citizens. We confirmed though the BPD Business Compliance Unit that the owners of Bird had not obtained the proper license to operate, and we began to remove the scooters from the public areas."

Homewood opted to remove and impound about 38 scooters from city sidewalks this week, said police Sgt. John Carr. Bird was scheduled to pick them up and receive a citation for doing business without a license on Friday. Fines and court costs for the citation total $371.

While Bird has declined to release any ridership data for Birmingham, scooter riders can often be seen in Avondale, Lakeview, downtown and the University of Alabama at Birmingham campus.

Ben Stephens said he's ridden Bird scooters a few times since they arrived in Birmingham. He's even rode one about a mile from his home to his job in Lakeview.

"I actually think they are awesome," he said. "Whenever I am off, I am riding them."

Stephens said sometimes he prefers not to drive and renting a scooter to get to work is cheaper than taking an Uber. The scooter costs $2 while taking an Uber costs at least $6.

John Lasater said he never rides Bird scooters in Nashville where he lives, but he has driven scooters while visiting Birmingham for work. He said it is convenient to ride the scooter from his hotel in the UAB area to work in Lakeview rather than taking an Uber.

Birmingham issued Bird Rides Inc. a cease and desist letter on Aug. 29 notifying the company that it was violating city law by placing scooters on city sidewalks without a license.

The letter stated if Bird Rides doesn't "immediately remove the items abandoned on the sidewalks of the city, the city will remove these items and impound them for safekeeping, subject to any applicable fees, including storage fees."

Bird has applied for a business license with the city.

Bird sent an email to all its Birmingham users on Thursday asking them to send an email to their city representative to tell them they support Bird.

"The city of Birmingham is having discussions regarding the use of dockless scooters in the city. With your support, we hope to continue to offer you an affordable, sustainable, and convenient transportation alternative and reduce car trips in Birmingham," the email states.

"Please send a quick email to your representatives and let them know that you support Bird in Birmingham as an affordable, eco-friendly transportation option to get around the city without having to worry about traffic or parking."

On Friday morning, Birmingham City Councilor Darrell O'Quinn, who chairs the council's transportation committee, said he has received about 170 emails from Bird users since 4 p.m. on Thursday.

"I was getting an email every 5 to 10 seconds there for a little while," he said.

O'Quinn said Bird's tactic backfired. "The mayor's office was inclined to be lenient and us being spammed with emails, escalated the situation to where they had to respond," he said.

"The only fair thing for us to do is for us to require Bird to play by the rules," O'Quinn continued. "We literally have thousands of businesses in the city of Birmingham who have played by the rules who have gone through the proper licensing and permitting to operate, and for us to sort of turn a blind eye towards Bird is completely unfair to all of these thousands of businesses who have tried to be good citizens."

O'Quinn said his office is actively working on drafting legislation to regulate electric scooters and similar modes of transportation.